More OP-ED

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

I did this piece last week for Leanne at the Op-Ed. The story was a good one for imagery though kind of tough to do without being offensive. Basically looks at how the media and the left were very hesitant to call the killer in the Ft. Hood shootings a terrorist, and how the rights support of the "war on terror" is really just creating such anger amongst Muslims here and abroad that events like the Ft. Hood shooting are possibly a result. There are other points like no matter how much you fight the extremist there are more being created by the violence perpetrated on Muslims, a vicious cycle. Some of the images convey the idea that any muslim is a potential terrorist, not my belief but a view brought up in the article.

I just finished the John Krakauer book on the killing of Pat Tillman. A very tragic sad tale, this guy was mowed down by his fellow squad members in the army rangers, had his head blown off, pretty much. The army covered it up from the start, burned his uniform, destroyed the body armor etc. The poor family. It's worth a read just for the wealth of background on the conflict, how we created the very enemy that we are fighting, how the CIA dumped money into the tribal areas so they could fight the Soviets as our proxy army. Anyway, this influenced my thinking here, it's a no win situation. There are also a few paragraphs at the end of the book, quotes from other writers proposing that the western male, encouraged to be peaceful, go to college, take your Ridalin (sp) are not prepared for the conflict at hand, that perhaps we are not creating enough alpha males. While we raise nice little open minded educated liberal minded young men the terrorists are training their young men to kill, this goes back to my illustration, of more more more, never ending. Krakeur goes on to say that the USA has no shortage of alpha males, indeed the army rangers are bad ass --but is this a fight they can win? I justread that Obama is scheduled to deliver an address next week on his Afghanistan strategy. It's Pakisatan that we really need to worry about.